Indian-origin academic wins maths 'Nobel' Fields Medal
New York, Aug. Aug 2 : Indian-origin academic Akshay Venkatesh has been awarded the Fields Medal, which is often called the Nobel Prize of mathematics.
The award to the 36-year-old academic was announced on Wednesday at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Rio de Janeiro.
Venkatesh, who made a mark as a child prodigy, is a professor at Stanford University and is set to move to the School of Mathematics of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton on August 15.
He is the second Indian-origin mathematician to win the prize after Manjul Bhargava, a Princeton University professor, who received it in 2014.
The other three winners of the medal awarded every four years usuallyto four mathematicians are Caucher Birkar, 40, of the University of Cambridge; Alessio Figalli, 34, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and Peter Scholze, of the University of Bonn.
The prize carries a gold medal and an award of Canadian $15,000.
Ali Nesin of Turkey was awarded on Wednesday at the Congress another prestigious award, the Leelavati Prize sponsored by Infosys for increasing public awareness of mathematics.
Nesin is the founder of the Mathematics Village, a unique institution offering short immersion courses in mathematics for high school and college students.
The prize is named for the treatise of 12th century mathematician Bhaskara II and carries a Rs 1 million-award. Venkatesh was awarded the prize for his work in analytic number theory, homogeneous dynamics, topology, and representation theory.
The Institute for Advanced Study said he works "at the intersection of analytic number theory, algebraic number theory, and representation theory."
He won India's SASTRA Ramanujan Prize, founded by Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology and Research Academy (SASTRA) in Tamil Nadu in 2008 and the InfoSys Prize given by the Infosys Science Foundation in 2016.
Venkatesh moved to Australia from New Delhi with his parents when he was two years old.
When he was 12, he won medals at the International Physics Olympiad and International Mathematics Olympiad and joined the University of Western Australia at 14 and graduated with a first class honours degree at 15.
At 16, he started his post-graduate studies at Princeton University and completed his PhD when he was 22 He was previously an instructor at Massachusetts Institute of the Technology, and an associate professor at New York University.
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Karnataka govt directs municipal corps to regulate, prohibit pigeon feeding
Bengaluru (PTI): The Karnataka government has issued directions to municipal corporations across the state to regulate and prohibit feeding pigeons in public places, citing serious public health concerns.
Deputy Secretary to Government V Lakshmikanth has written to the Urban Development Department requesting it to issue directions to the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) and all municipal corporations to take immediate steps to implement the measures.
In an official note dated December 16 issued by the Health and Family Welfare Department and released to the media on Wednesday, the department said uncontrolled feeding of pigeons in public places has resulted in large congregations of birds, excessive droppings and serious health concerns, particularly respiratory illnesses linked to prolonged exposure to pigeon droppings and feathers such as hypersensitivity pneumonitis and other lung diseases.
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"The commissioner, the Greater Bengaluru Authority and the Commissioners and chief officers of other municipal corporations shall take necessary action to mitigate the causes of dangerous disease spread by pigeon and enforce specified guidelines in their respective jurisdiction," the note said.
According to the department, these include a prohibition on feeding pigeons or causing pigeons to be fed in areas where it may cause nuisance or pose a health hazard to the public. Pigeon feeding shall be permitted only in designated areas in a controlled manner, subject to certain conditions.
"The designated areas may be selected in consultation with stakeholders. The responsibility for upkeep of the designated areas and compliance to the directions shall be taken up by some charitable organisation or an NGO. The feeding in designated areas shall be permitted only for some limited hours in the day," it said.
The note further stated that authorised officers of local authorities shall issue on-the-spot warnings and may impose fines for violation of the order, or lodge complaints to prosecute offenders under Sections 271 (Negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and 272 (Malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
It also directed local authorities to conduct public awareness campaigns, including the display of signboards, banners and digital messages, explaining the health hazards associated with pigeon droppings and feathers, the content of the regulatory directions and penalties for violations, and alternative humane methods of bird conservation that do not endanger public health.
